Guidelines to Shopping for Lawyer Marketing
I am biased. I offer services for hire, which by definition means that I will prefer my own approach over any other. If I did not prefer my approach, then I should find another pursuit. At the same time, I feel I can offer practical advice to any attorney who is shopping for online Web development services.
Be wary of any Web developer who guarantees that they can put your site in the top of the Goggle, Yahoo!, or any other search engine rankings. They cannot. They certainly will not put that guarantee in writing.
Be wary of any Web developer who insists that you host your site on their servers and then charges you an exorbitant fees for such services. (I can set you up with reliable hosting that will cost you as little as $4 per month. I host my own 50,000 word site that has Flash files on every page on these same servers and never have troubles.)
Be wary of any Web developer who tries to sell you content packages that dynamically update. They sell the same dynamic content to every other lawyer who practices in your field. And the worst part is that the updating content is generic law school case law. It doesn't relate to your clients and their problems. The material may not even apply to Minnesota.
Be wary of any Web developer who does not offer to advise you on legal ethics or professional responsibility. You can be sure that Web developers who do not even offer to advise you on your professional responsibility have little care or concern whether your site violates the rules.
Rules violations are serious. You can be held accountable for your actions on the Internet. You do not need to push the envelope just to be competitive.
My Developer of Choice
Well, me, obviously. But why? If I look at myself and my services objectively (as objectively as I can, anyway), I see the following:
- Quality of work over corporate profiteering
- All work performed by a licensed, practicing attorney
- No long term contracts
- No outlandish promises
- Compliance with Minnesota ethics rules
- Possibility of personal meetings at any time during the process
I could go on. Instead, take a look at my qualifications if you haven't already. |